Patanjali Sastri, J.

1. This is an appeal from the judgment and decree of the Court of the District Judge of South Arcot dismissing with costs a suit brought by the appellant under Section 73 of the Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act (II of 1927) for the removal of the respondents and two other members of their family, since deceased, from the trusteeship of a temple known as Sri Elamaiyakkinar temple situated at Chidambaram, for the appointment of a proper trustee and for an account of the respondents management of the temple properties. The appellant alleged in his plaint various acts of misfeasance and malfeasance and misappropriation of trust moneys by the respondents family in the course of their management, as grounds for the reliefs sought. The respondents pleaded, inter alia, that the appellant was not a " person having interest" in the temple within the meaning of the Act referred to above and was therefore not entitled to sue, that the temple owned only about one acre of nanja land in cusba Chidambaram, which fetched an annual rent of about 15 to 20 kalams of paddy, that it had no other source of income, that the temple was maintained only by the private munific